Progress?

Past:
The days were ever beautiful,
Golden rays and singing waves,
Soothing were such greetings.
Enthusiasm fed by nature's gifts,
Birds dancing amid bright colors,
Spirits raised into heights aloft.
Cheerfulness embedded in goodwill gestures,
Happy steps among aromatic breezes,
Many smiling and giving greetings.
Encouraging words given freely,
Unselfish acts abounded the streets,
Calm nights bathed in twinkling stars.

Now :
Cursing mornings and frightful rays,
Rising to yet another day of misery,
Slothful and devious conspiracies weaved.
Curtains drawn... scared to open,
What new horrors to behold delayed,
The nights wrongs, no rush to behold.
Morning meal's meager if any at all,
Now out into this cruel reality to forage,
Bracing for what fate will now reveal.
The birds sing of sorrowful tales,
Their melodies seem sad and bleary,
Merchants washing fronts..is that blood?
Checking faces to see if any is missing,
Heads shaking hearts pumping in fear,
What next will be the news? Paradise hijacked.

© Perveiz Ali

"I await a guardian."
Shrouded forms who wrench and weave the hidden things I can't percieve,
into twisted thoughts of rage and woe
which drag me through the flames below.
"I await a guardian."
Bony fingers who clench.
Macabre lips who **** to kiss.
Weapons of hunger, instruments of fear...
"I await a guardian."
Joy becomes a distant memory,
replaced with bells that clang and roar.
The light has passed the spectrum,
fading to a shade of emptiness.
Kneeling in the dirt with
hands across my face; demons mistlike in their flight embrace my sorrow,
their sweet delight.
"I await a guardian."
All I need, is hopelessly gone.
All I need is hope... gone.
All I need is hope.
All I need... hope.
I need hope.
...hope.
HOPE.
What brightness in brilliance through such confines of the black. Shadows cannot hide when you shine like the sun.
The brazen bells have silenced and the mist is all but clear, scattered in the lucent are abandoned tools of fear.
"I await a guardian?"
I have become the guardian.

This world didn't abandon war, we just made it greedy and taught it to answer to the highest bidder.
We didn't destroy famine, we just pushed it far enough away to distract everyone else with neon lights.
We didn't conquer pestilence, it just grew tired of infecting our bodies, and grew hungry for our souls.
If the last enemy to be destroyed is death, then he will be waiting a long time because our enemies weren't defeated, just painted a different color and labeled "Buy one, get one free."